Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Carmilla

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Carmilla by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

27 reviews

elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

An odd novella, to be sure, and yet one that has earned its place among my favorite classics. An interesting take on sapphic desire, love, and identity accompanied by very intriguing, lore-heavy vampirism.

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el_be_readin's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

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clovetra's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

easily out of all the classics i’ve read from before the 1900s, this is my favourite.

yes technically this edition is modern as it was edited by carmen maria machado but SHUT UP.

also shout out to carmen i loved her editing!!!! her little end notes plus her prologue? honestly without her editing i don’t think i would’ve enjoyed this as much. so happy i chose to read this edition. the fact that carmen doesn’t add the additional letters simply to spite the author for hiding just HOW DOWN BAD laura was???? god her prologue was so fun. usually prologue’s for classics are a snooze fest where it’s literally just them recounting the authors life, but carmen somehow managed to breathe life into a short summary? plus i don’t know if the original edition has this or if carmen added it, but the images!!!!! did not expect them, and honestly it added to the story quite nicely, especially the images where laura is so incredibly down bad. she’s so me coded (falls head over heels in seconds without checking for concerns and becomes absolutely infatuated with someone she knows jack shit about). i love stupid lesbian rep in my 1800s gothics.

god what can i say. this book immediately gets bonus points because i am infact a lesbian who loves vampires and horror. like this book was set up for me to love it. plus carmen’s editing made all the fanciful 1800s english actually coherent! cuz im sorry english pre-1900s is so hard for my brain to comprehend. sorry booktwt im not smart enough for classics sue me. but this? this made so much sense and i loved it.

i also loved that the classic vampire traits we’ve grown to know don’t come from this. i mean this was literally the blueprint of vampire tales. i love that carmilla is just a sleepy girl who wakes up at 1pm and is moody. me and carmilla are one in the same. she gets me fr. like fuck that shit about garlic give me an enchantress who happens to be perpetually tired. like my girl has CFS/ME and is goth she’s literally me!!!!!!!! plus she turns into a cat!!!!! all lesbians love cats!!!!!! carmilla is the same as modern day lesbians i said what i said.

also props for the lesbianism being so explicit! in other classics there’s a lot of subtext…., nah in here we see carmilla and laura kiss and laura has a sleep orgasm cuz she dreams about carmilla. she’s so down bad.

i wish i got a bit more time with my homegirl carmilla and saw her be more explicitly a vampire but im not too mad about it. i like the fact her vampirism is more of an undertone and is less explicit honestly. fuck lesbianism being in the subtext let’s make the fact she is an ancient supernatural being the subtext 🔥

anyways this might actually be my favourite classic. I LOVE LESBIANS!!!!

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mandareads222's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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rainbowrocky's review against another edition

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mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book must've blown minds in 19th century Ireland. I can see why it's a literary classic. I loved it a lot even if the characters are a bit one dimensional. It's more about the atmosphere, the looming threat of death. We know what's happening to Laura, but she hasn't the faintest idea since she's so innocent. Spoilers:

Carmilla's death was a bit of a let down. I thought we were building to something more shocking but her death was over so quickly and unceremoniously.

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aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

starting the Carmilla routine (waking up at 1pm and drinking hot chocolate)

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sympatheticdroid's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Sometimes its absurdity made it absolutely hilarious, but I think overall it's more about the dark romantic undertones than the funnies. The dark romantic undertones are between this weirdo Carmilla and this really sad girl Laura, both who you can interpret in a billion different ways. There's a lot of speculating to be done while reading, and even more to be done after you're finished. The length is short, it's in the public domain and the pacing is lightning quick so there's really not much reason to avoid reading it if you're at all interested in vampires, lesbians, lesbian vampires, historical queer fiction and/or historical fiction featuring women.

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